I have been reading about the plight of the East Indians and the way they have not been given a fair deal by the Maharashtra government over the years. Their lands have been acquired without adequate compensation being given e.g. Santa Cruz airport land, and they do not get any recognition by the government authorities. After following the reports on the various actions being taken by the members of the community, with negligible results, it is apparent to me that this sorry state of affairs will only worsen unless active steps are taken by the top clergy in Mumbai.

If you take the example of Goa, where Archbishop Felipe Neri Ferrao has developed such an outstanding role as a leader of Christians that he commands the respect of the top Goa goverrnment authorities, be it the Chief Minister or the Governor, it would be heartening if the top Church authorities in Maharashtra would also emulate Archbishop Ferrao and use their authority to assist the East Indians in their rightful fight for justice.

The East Indian community now have their own patron saint - Saint Gonsalo Garcia.

The Mobai Gaothan Panchayat (MGP), a welfare organization of the community took the decision to have a patron saint of their own during their managing committee meeting. – courtesy Midday dated 07feb2013

About saint Gonsalo Garcia –

Revered as a holyman, saint Gonsalo Garcia was born in Ghas village in Vasai 400 years ago. Being a holy person, he had gone to enlighten people in Nagasaki (in Japan) and was martyred there while spreading the teachings of Christ. Saint Garcia was born in Vasai to an Indian mother and a Portuguese father and is the first Indian saint. To keep his teachings alive, every year we have a feast on his birth anniversary which is February 6. The MGP plan to request the Archdiocese of Bombay to dedicate a church or chapel in Mumbai to saint Gonsalo Garcia between Colaba and Borivli, although there is a church dedicated to him in Vasai. A museum is also slated to open at Manori in May along with a statue of the saint depicting a brief history of his life.

Just wonder how many people (East Indians) know about open source software. These are programs which are not only free but whose source code is also open.

Instead of using pirated copies of proprietory software (e.g. MS Office, MS SQL Server / Oracle, MS Project, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Reader, WinZip, etc.), you can use open source programs (e.g. OpenOffice.org or LibreOffice.org, MySQL, GanttProject, GIMP, Foxit Reader, 7-Zip, Audacity, Stellarium, etc.). These programs are made by volunteers all over the world who contribute time or money to develop, test and publish these programs in various languages in the world. This means there will be less bugs (errors) in software as it is thoroughly tested before being released to the public. You can also change the software according to your needs as source code can be downloaded but have to use the same license (GPL).

Free software may sometimes have spyware or trojan horse (you know how Greeks defeated Troy). But, open source will not because source code is open and it is tested well. Open source software is only published after it is thoroughly tested by people all over the world. Proprietory software will be tested but may still have some bugs or security holes.

Festival of traditional Gaothan flavours to be held in the month of April 2012

The festival programme is being organized by the MobaiGaothan Panchayat (MGP). It will include a gaothan exhibition with community artifacts on display, a massive food festival with traditional East Indian platter and a cookery programme to be hosted by Michael Swamy, the author of “The East Indian Kitchen”

The exhibition will include some traditional utensils and daily equipment used by the community members who are aborigines of the city. The food festival will give them a taste of the food they have been eating over the years – said Alphi D’souza, sarpanch of Mobai and the spokesperson of MGP.

Members from the community will meet to discuss and plan the issues and challenges faced by the community in the city. The MGP also plans to set up local stores at all city gaothans, which will sell home-selling articles, grown-prepared and manufactured exclusively by the community. The first store will be set-up in the JUHU gaothan.

LAST 2 DAYS I MET A GROUP OF PEOPLE, WHO BELIEVED THAT AS WE HAVE HEAVENLY FATHER IN HEAVEN SO DO WE HAVE HEAVENLY MOTHER IN HEAVEN, WHAT A DECEPTION! I GAVE THEM Mt.22:30 TO READ TO WHICH THEY SURRENDERED AND ALSO AGREED THAT THEY HAVE SOMETHING WRONG IN THEIR BELIEF. Mt.22:30 SAYS THAT THERE IS NO MARRIAGE IN HEAVEN, WE LIVE LIKE ANGELS, THAT MEANS THERE IS NO SEX(MALE AN FEMALE) IN HEAVEN.

I ALSO REQUESTED THEM TO CONCENTRATE ON PREACHING GOSPEL IN THESE LAST DAYS RATHER THAN ARGUING ON DOCTRINES. THEY ALL AGREED AND BOWED DOWN TO PRAY, I PRAYED TO GOD TO DELIVER THEM FROM THIS DECEPTION. BE ALERT! STAY AWAY FROM WRONG DOCTRINES

Virgil Sequeira, has been the Director of the Xavier College Chorus, Mumbai and teaches music at Gandhi Ashram School, Kalimpong.

He will be representing India and Asia as Tenor/Baritone at the International Vocal Quartet on SOUL Tour 2012 in USA and Africa.

He will be sharing East Indian Marathi music as well as music from other parts of India arranged for choirs of all age groups in this unique cultural music exchange from January to July 2012 organized by Singers of United Lands, USA .

Do check the itinerary of the tour ( www.singersofunitedlands.org) to see if the quartet is visiting close to where your relatives and friends live so that they can attend concerts!